Smoke Dried Faces
by jillyredmayne
Summary: She was...weird. That was the only word that ever came into mind when he thought o her. And oddly enough, he found himself to be a bit charmed by her oddities and strange mannerisms. Zuko/OC After Ozai's defeat.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This story was inspired by the song "Come on Eileen." I was listening to it and this idea just popped into my head out of nowhere. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. And feel free to give me tips on how to improve my writing and ask questions if you feel that some things are a bit unclear. I'm always open to advice. Just no flames please. Enjoy! Oh and please review if you can! I'd like some feedback.

**Disclaimer:** You know what this is.

Ciao, Lovelies! :)

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**Chapter One (I suppose)**

Two years. Two long, life changing years. It's been two years since she was dumped into the odd spiritual scene. She's lived in the unfamiliar realm for two years, miraculously surviving without internet, hot showers, T.V, air conditioning, junk food, toilet paper—God, she never thought she'd yearn for something as boring as toilet paper—and various other hidden luxuries in her old homeland.

Anita held a dagger out in front of her, sharpening it with a rock. Then she gazed at her reflection in her mirror. The edges were cracked and it was a bit bleary, but she didn't care. She was just glad she was not the one to crack it. Seven years bad luck for breaking a mirror, right? At least that's what the superstition was back on earth. Earth. Was she still on earth? Or was she on another planet now? The answer she didn't know. All she knew was that she definitely was not in Kansas anymore.

Well, she wasn't to begin with. She was in Delaware, Wilmington to be exact. In the shady area. She had moved foster homes for the millionth time in her short sixteen years of living and has visited almost every state in mainland America. The home she was previously kicked out of was in the state of Oregon, for _'being a bad influence and a danger'_ to Monogram's (she had taken to calling her previous foster mother that because of her unibrow) kids. Which she most certainly was not. If anything _they_ were a bad influence to her. And a _major _health hazard.

Ok, she'll admit she was a bit reckless but not to those two demon children's level. Those two suckers were the very embodiment of trouble.

Looking at the dagger in her hand, she was reminded of the time they had first met. Cory—the boy and also the elder of the two rascals—threw a kitchen knife at her, deciding to use her as target practice. He placed an apple at her head and threw the knife, narrowly missing her ear.

Now, before you call her stupid for even giving him permission to play that game with him, she didn't expect it at all. Cory was a cute little boy, only thirteen. She expected him to use a Nerf gun or even a BB gun, not a kitchen knife.

His little sister Kiera was a quiet one. She learned from her to always watch for the quiet ones. Anita couldn't remember exactly what she had done to even provoke the pretty little eleven year old, but one night while she was asleep, the little shit set her clothes on fire.

That was the last straw for Monogram. She was kicked out of that miserable place with nothing but an old photo, thankful that she kept it with her at all times.

And that's how she found herself in Wilmington, in the humble abode of Miss Tracee Rivera. Tracee was a sweet lady with a very alarming fascination with plastic water bottle caps. She was a special snowflake. Regardless of her oddity, she was kind to Anita and was a major step up from Monogram. Everything was great for a while, until exactly five months of living there.

Some random dude in a ski mask broke into Bottle Cap's (that was her nickname for Tracee) town house, trashing the whole place. Tracee had been busy speaking on the phone with who knows who, while Anita had been doing her history homework, when a loud and painfully obvious crash sounded in one of the bedrooms.

"Jesus, fuck." the intruder howled.

Bottle Cap abruptly stopped chattering and rang the police. A good twenty minutes later after the man had held them at gun point, the police came in.

And that was where her memories would go blank. She could still hear the man spitting threats at her and feel the weight of metal being jabbed into her skull and hear the deafening crash as the police broke down the door and feel the utter fear crawl under her skin, but she couldn't recall the events that followed.

Out of nowhere, she had found herself in the middle of a market place. Full of exotic people with bright green eyes and dark hair. Each and every one of them dressed in green. It was odd because they were all dressed in—in those clothes Asian people wore in those time-period Kung-Fu films. She had to be dead. That thug shot her dead. This couldn't be real. If she was dead, she wouldn't be standing in the middle of China or whatever Asian country this was. But deep in her mind she knew she wasn't. The city around her was too alive and busy for her to be dead. This had to be a joke, or maybe Tracee had gotten fed up with her and staged the whole scenario, drugged her, then shipped her off to China, literally...

She instinctively rummaged through her pockets, as if it held all the answers in the folds. All she had in her pockets was a pack of gum, three hair bands, the photo and a phone that didn't have reception. She tried calling Tracee but to no avail. She was stuck.

It was odd though...she swears she's seen this place somewhere before...on T.V., maybe in a movie...

She'll have to find out for herself then, and she did. The hard way.

"Hey, hey you." she had waved at a random bystander. The dude probed her form and eyed her countenance with curious green eyes.

"Can you tell me where I am?"

Green eyes looked at her as if she was crazy (which she probably was) but gave her an answer anyway, "Ba Sing Se. The last standing Earth Kingdom."

And that was when everything clicked into place. Ba Sing Se. Earth Kingdom. She watched this show as a kid! Memories of an animated character with large gray eyes, a bald head and a distinct blue arrow tattoo popped into her head.

This couldn't be real.

"Ow! What's that for?" she had yelped when the green eyed boy hurled a rock at her.

"I was just making sure that you were real. I've never seen a gypsy before."

Anita frowned at him. "I'm not a gypsy."

"Where you from, Gypsy?" He asked her, a broad grin on his young face. He couldn't have been more than nine years old. She wasn't going to under estimate him though. She's learned her lesson...

She pursed her lips in annoyance. She was not a gypsy. "I'm from—" and then she faltered and sighed. He wouldn't believe her. "I'm not from here."

That was where she explained her situation to Lee, the boy's name was. Well, not her actual situation. She told him she was an orphan, a victim of the Fire Nation. Oddly enough Lee believed her and offered her a place to stay, convinced that she was a victim of loss. His family was forced to seek refuge here, since his town was burned down. And due to other safety issues. It turns out she came in right towards the ending of the Hundred Years' War. Of course she wouldn't tell anyone of her knowledge; they would think she was mental or capture her for it. But she knew how it all ended. Ozai was defeated. Happy ending for all.

Except her. She thought when Aang defeated Ozai, she'd be able to go back home. But no, she was still here, a good few months after the war ended. Sitting in front of her cracked bleary mirror, a dagger in her hand, eyeing her long brown hair. Not that she had anything at home in the first place, but she didn't have anything here either. Ok, she had Lee and Sela and Gansu, but...

She brushed her fingers through the curly tangled mess that was her hair. It's grown to be down to her bum and she needed to cut it. With a firm grip on the dagger, and a gentle tug of her hair, she began hacking away until it was a poufy shoulder length mess.

She laughed at herself. Her hair looked ridiculous, yes, but she didn't care and she wasn't laughing because of that. The whole scene reminded her so much of Mulan when she chopped off her pretty hair to join the army. Foolish girl, she would kill to have straight hair.

"Anita! You're going to be late, again!" Sela called for her.

"Coming!"

With that, she pulled on her signature purple skirt and her white crop-top, thing. It was too hot to be in pants and long sleeved shirts.

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**A/N:** A tad bit long for an introduction I know, but I felt it necessary to give her a back story. :P

REVIEW PLEASE!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I didn't want to update, right after I had just uploaded the first chapter, but whatever. There's no Zuko in this chapter just yet, so be patient. He'll come up real soon. ;) Well, I hope you find this chapter to you satisfaction. Even though I didn't really like it that much.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Zuko and the GAang.

Byee! :)

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**The Filler Chapter (Unenthusiastic YAY!)**

"You look different." Lee told her, gesturing at her choppy hair.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Anita answered, around a mouthful of rice. She had to eat fast, or she wouldn't make it.

Lee squinted his eyes at her and tilted his head as if in deep thought. "Well, if you tilt your head to this side, and then close this eye, and then close the other eye…it looks good!"

The older girl smacked his head playfully, eliciting a laugh from the eleven year old. "Jerk."

"I was just kidding!"

Anita rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Don't you have guards to terrorize or old ladies to bother or something? And where are your parents?"

"Mom's out doing the laundry, Dad's out doing whatever he does. Don't you have a tea-shop you have to get to?"

"Oh yeah," she said, sloppily drinking a glass of water. Bits of it trickling down her chin, causing Lee to wince in disgust.

She ruffled his hair affectionately, "I'll see you later Smelly."

"Gypsy." He muttered. Anita grinned at him and stuck out her tongue.

It was bright outside and alive. The air smelled like dirt and spices, flashes of rich green silk met her line of vision. She has never felt more at home in her life. She's never felt like she belonged anywhere.

The walk to the Jasmine Dragon was not too far from Lee's home, thankfully. But due to the business of the streets and the never ending streams of people, it took her a good half an hour just to get there. The scent of different sweet smelling tea, made its way into her nostrils when she finally stepped inside the grand building. She always felt out of place, more so than usual when she was in there. Perhaps it was her purple skirt and their green and yellow attire, or it was her poofy mass of hair, or the proud elegant countenance of the people, whatever it was, she didn't know.

"Hello Anita! You're here earlier than usual, still having those dreams?" her boss greeted her heartily. Iroh. She nearly passed out from excitement on her first day of work there. He would know all of the answers to her problems. To her strange dreams and her nightmares and why she was there. But he didn't. He listened to her and told her that perhaps that the spirits had something in mind for her, but that was enough explanation for Anita. She was just glad that someone here believed in her tale. She was relieved to have it all off her chest and out in the open with someone.

"Not as much. I did have a dream a few days, ago."

"If you need someone to talk to, I'm here to listen." He offered, patting at her arm. She simply nodded, giving him a small smile of appreciation. They've become good friends over the past few months.

She made her way to the staff's room and behind a paper wall to change her clothes. She slipped on the customary dark green dress and the yellow sash, discarding her purple skirt and white top.

Business went on a usual in the Jasmine Dragon. She chatted happily with Rin—one of her first female friends upon arriving in this world—she filled in orders and served cups and cups of tea, Haru would visit and mess with the two girls, everything was normal. And that was how the day went.

"Phew, I thought this day would never end." Rin groaned dramatically collapsing into the chair next to her.

"You say that after every shift." Anita pointed out.

"Because it feels like that every day. It's always been my dream to move into the big city, I never realized how hard you had to work though." She yawned out, brushing bits of dark silky hair out of her eyes.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Anita had always dreamed of moving to New York in a charming studio apartment with a fire escape—don't ask, she's always wanted a fire escape—and a perfect view of all the lights and the people. She dreamed of making it big on Broadway, even if she couldn't do the fancy high-singing and graceful dance moves, it all just seemed so romantic and fun and exciting. But she probably wouldn't be able to achieve it any time soon. She was stuck here.

Then a thought smacked her right between the eyes, "So, what's up with you and Haru?" she waggled her eyebrows at her friend.

Rin flushed, the color of her cheeks complimenting her bright green eyes. "Nothing, what's up with you and—"Rin faltered, drawing a blank.

"Ugh! I give up!"

"You give up, what?"

"You know what."

"Actually I don't." Anita knew what, but she wanted to hear it from her.

"You know I like him, Gypsy." Rin whispered bashfully, referring to her nickname.

"Don't call me that, just don't. Why does everyone even call me that?"

Rin shrugged her shoulders, clearly happy that the topic has shifted away from Haru. Anita knew exactly what she was doing, but she would let it slide for now.

"I don't know. I suppose it's your hair—hey! You cut it!"

Anita rolled her eyes, "No kidding Captain Obvious. Chopped it all off this morning."

"It looks…different. In a good way, it's not as messy."

"Thanks. Even though I know you're lying."

"I wasn't lying."

"Sure you weren't."

"Whatever. I gotta go. It's your turn to clean." She said, tossing her apron onto a hook.

"What's the rush?" Anita asked her.

Rin's head poked out from behind the paper changing walls, "I got a date." A grin engulfed her pretty face.

Anita squealed happily, "Oh! I knew it! I knew it! I. Told. You. So!"

Rin shook her head and made her way towards the door. "Yeah, yeah. Can it Gypsy! I'm going now."

"Have fun! But not too much fun!"

And with a shake of her head and a grin on her face, she turned and began her task.

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REVIEW PLEASE!


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